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Bob Palais
Trad climber
UT
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Wonderful post TrundleBum!! Another thing, seems I didn't include it in previous posts, Jimmie (our friend Billy R writes `Jimmy spells his name wrong! ;-) schooled me on chess numerous times! Was wearing the Morris designed amanita EMS climbing school t-shirt just last week... Happened to be in the neighborhood the day Jimmy and Helln moved in to a new spot closer to the canyons in the Springs. Lotsa nature in the backyard, and it will give Jimmie a chance to get back into beekeeping!
Leonard is active on Facebook. Just ran across pics from a Valley trip with LC, posing together at the top of Rostrum.
Check out the cool `Nice climbers' thread, where Jimmie and others showing up here are also mentioned. Add your own!
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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SWEET- The kind guy who was crankin' 12 wide BITD
I will always remember " there's more up there than you can see"
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England
Mountain climber
Colorado
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As dictated by Jimmie Dunn,
8th Voyage Black Canyon-Leonard Coyne's quote in the guide book.
"James approach seemed to work, we sent the route with minimal ado". This sounds good, but it's a bit of an exageration.
1. Leaving a gallon of water on the route made it easier, and less of a commitment.
2. I found the route difficult, and I did not use minimal ado.
3. In those days Leonard was a stong very motivated climber who spent most of his energy climbing. However, Leonard did not use minimal ado. He backed off leading two pitches, and found seconding even difficult.
4. The Nalgene gallon water bottle was the cause of much screaming between us. He wanted to jettison the bottle, but I wanted him to climb with it. I know it was bulky, and made climbing much more difficult. Sorry Leonard.
I don't want people reading the guide book, and thinking that we were so good that the 8th voyage was easy. It's a tough climb! My plan was to go back, and free climb it with no water, but my son Rane was born in March of 1981, and I completely stopped climbing for five years. Peter Gallager, and I attempted to free climb the route about a week or two before Leonard, and I did it. We got up to the difficult offwidth, and then traversed off. Earl Wiggins, and Steve Hong had attempted to free climb it, about a year before, and the pitch above the hard offwidth had a rope lowered to them. Earl told me he placed two hexs(#4 & #5 I think)he hung from them, and yelled for a rope. This is one reason I most likely left water on the route. I guess I was worried about that upper pitch. Hope this clears up some of the 8th voyage history.
Jimmie Dunn
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domngo
climber
Canada
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Nov 12, 2011 - 08:45am PT
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bump. Thanks for the awesome stories everyone
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M. Volland
Trad climber
Grand Canyon
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Nov 12, 2011 - 09:24am PT
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It was 2003. My friend and I were one pitch up on Ancient Art, sitting on a ledge, admiring the odd landscape around us that make up the Fisher Towers. We witnessed a strange looking man, dressed all in black, with a red swami belt wrapped around his waist. This ninja looking dude quickly climbed the Cobra, before heading our way. A few minutes later, he pops his head up on a ledge off to our left. He is not carrying any gear, and has his end of the rope clenched between his teeth, not tied to his swami belt. He belays his second up off his hip, using nothing but his hands and his waist. Looks over at us and confidently says, "Don't worry, I got her good!" Just before a middle aged blond woman pokes her head up and mantles the ledge.
He found out that we were from Yosemite, and politely asked us to tell Ron Kauk to pay him a visit sometime soon. Said his name was Jimmy.
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slabbo
Trad climber
fort garland, colo
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Nov 12, 2011 - 09:31am PT
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There is of course the "tequila incident" from Yos BITD, but that may be better kept under wraps for now.
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hoipolloi
climber
A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi
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Nov 12, 2011 - 11:48am PT
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Cool thread. Cosmos has been high on my list for a while now. Maybe this coming season.
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gy
climber
Greenville, NC
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Nov 16, 2011 - 11:15am PT
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Steve A,
I asked Jimmie about the Beaver incident, and he did laugh when he told the story. He was quite afraid that the beaver might have rabies, so the authorities offered to open up the animal's brain to confirm if it did have rabies, but Jimmie's love for animals prevented him from accepting the offer. Which reminds me..... we were walking back from a climb and Jimmie stopped to pick up something from the road. It turned out that he picked up a deceased animal, I think it was a bee, and tossed it into the grass. He doesn't like to see dead animals on the road. He said that they belong with nature.
Jimmie is one of the most genuine and friendly climbers I know. It's astonishing to me how much energy and motivation Jimmie has to climb, to this day. From the second I shook his hand when we met at Garden of the Gods to the moment he hugged me goodbye in his driveway, I knew this man was going to impact my climbing career.
The first time I saw Jimmie I was intrigued by his mad scientist-like phenotype.
I was on a cross-country climbing road trip, and as I made my way into UT and CA, Jimmie kept in touch with me and connected me with his friends along my way. Jimmie was especially psyched to hear about my trip to Canyonlands and El Capitan. While I was climbing in Mill Creek, UT, he left me two very long voicemails detailing the various towers that I must climb. He followed each tower by its history all the while Charlie Joe was causing ruckus in the background. As I listened to them, I couldn't help but laugh because he was going on and on about towers, funny guy....
recent photos: last week
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The Mayor
Social climber
Billings, Montana USA
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May 12, 2012 - 07:51pm PT
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Summer 1978, my first day climbing ever. I took a lesson with Mack Johnson out of IME. Afterwards we had some time to kill so he offered to give me a tour of some local ares, one of which was Woodchuck Ledge. At the foot of the crag there was a guy sitting on the ground facing the rock doing some kind of lowball bouldering moves with one EB and one barefoot. My thoughts went from thinking "what a yahoo" to this climbing business is sure getting complicated. Mack and this character exchanged hellos and we continued on. Mack explained that that was Jimmy Dunn who had made a lot of first ascents in the area and out west. Oh.
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 16, 2015 - 12:58pm PT
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Here is a recent photo of Jimmy, doing what he has been doing for years, mining for minerals, in Arizona. It's hard and dangerous work.
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
Ogden, Utah
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Feb 10, 2016 - 04:39am PT
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Bump for an awesome, inspirational and legendary man!
And a reminder of what this forum should be about.
Jimmie is doing well, still chasing wulfenite down in AZ with my brother Gabe.
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slabbo
Trad climber
colo south
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Feb 10, 2016 - 07:06am PT
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Cool photo SA...I wonder what he will be up to next ?
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smith curry
climber
nashville,TN
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Feb 11, 2016 - 06:42am PT
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Coolest guy ever...I met him out at the Fisher Towers about 15 years ago and he was super kind and encouraging---I felt pretty wimpy as he shook my soft hand with his leathery mitt haha. A year or so later I ran in to him in El Portal in mid December; I had just climbed the Zodiac, and he and his gf had just bailed off of the Nose due to weather. He kept gushing about how awesome me and my partner were for sending, and I felt like in Wayne's World when they meet Alice Cooper: We're not worthy!!!
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Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)
Social climber
CO
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Feb 11, 2016 - 08:35pm PT
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Jimmy and Keith Reynolds on the FA of Rain of Dust, Predator Tower, Kane Springs. Photo by me.
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hubcap
climber
loveland co
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Jul 23, 2016 - 09:33am PT
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Wow, how did I miss this thread?
I remember how in 1972 I missed the spring season in the Valley because I had tic fever. I did make it for the fall season. So in the spring of 1973 I decided to go there early and get a head start. I think it was the first week of March. It was snowing and really dark out when I got there.
As I was setting up camp this dark figure kept circling around Sunnyside. Eventually he came over to talk; it was Jimmy. My first impression (by looks) was that this guy was an absent minded professor. He said he was looking for a climbing partner so that was cool, since we were about the only people there.
We did quite a few warm up climbs (on Reeds & the Cookie etc) and eventually spread out to other partners as they turned up.
Later in the spring he suggested that we take a trip over to Zion and bring Matt Donahoe with us. I said sure, that sounds great.
We got to Zion, camped and the next morning we decided to drive around and check the place out. As we were driving east through the Checkerboard Mesa we were getting hot to jump out and do some exploring. Soon Jimmy was shouting “pull over, pull over”. Jimmy said “right back behind us on that curve is a wash that has some vertical walls that we can boulder around on”. Cool!!!
Jimmy and I grabbed our shoes and a water bottle; Matt was f*#king around so we took off. As soon as we hit the black polished cliff and got our shoes on Jimmy took off with me right behind him. We had climbed about 20 feet of 5.6 to 5.7 to a small sloping ledge that was just level with road at the curve, right then Jimmy started to scream at Matt to bring the bolt kit, hammer & rope. Holy crap – it’s that hard? Matt got down there with the kit and rope and he tossed them up to Jimmy. He tied into the rope and started drilling a hole.
I just hung there staring at the tourist cars driving right at us, then they would hit the curve, whip left and be gone. They had just enough time to get a vivid impression of us hanging on the wall.
To this point Jimmy never said a word. Within a few minutes he was tied into the bolt and was hanging there.
Then the most amazing thing happened!
JIMMY DROPPED HIS DRAWERS PULLED HIS LEGS UP AND STARTED SQUEEZING OFF AN ENORMOUS SH#T!!! INCREDIBLE!!!
I quickly turned around and watched the faces of the people flying by. Two seconds of terror on each face. Oh my god!
Jimmy was busy sh#tting and Matt was putting on his shoes so they never did get why I was laughing so hard.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Jul 23, 2016 - 11:01am PT
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I learned the hard way on the Dunn Route on Moses Tower. Climbing 5.13 sport does not mean you can float up 5.10+ desert cracks, AT ALL..
Nearly literally blew out my O ring on that route. Those desert rats were the real deal.
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